RUSH - PERMANENT WAVES: 40TH ANNIVERSARY (DLX CD)

RUSH - PERMANENT WAVES: 40TH ANNIVERSARY (DLX CD) I’ll be honest,” says Geddy Lee, smiling although he’s complaining. “I’m fed up that every time I turn around that it’s the fortieth anniversary of something we’ve done.”   You can see his point. It seems like not a month goes by before more repackaged and/or remixed Rush goodies come along. As a band who simply don’t have a catalogue of songs and out-takes waiting to be rediscovered, Rush’s history isn’t the easiest seam to mine.  This reissue, though, has added poignancy, being the first major one since we lost drummer/ lyricist Neil Peart, and Permanent Waves is the album that redefined who and what Rush were as a band.  Admittedly there’s the usual abundance of dexterous showing off, and no one had cut their hair yet, although Peart had dispensed with his Victorian dad moustache, but Permanent Waves was a band marching into a new decade; new studio; new sensibilities. It took the world by storm, and was usurped commercially only by Moving Pictures a scant 13 months later.